Archive for October, 2010
By Hook or By Crook
Posted by jimheck in Corruption, Politics on October 29, 2010
Before Angle vs. Reid on Tuesday, we’re going to have Kikwete vs. Slaa on Sunday. And a remarkable surprise may be in the making. Several opinion polls are now predicting that the sitting president of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete, may not be reelected. This is really incredible. I have to admit my own surprise by admitting [...]
Oh those Scandalous Wildebeest!
Posted by jimheck in Big Game, Great Migration, Mara, Serengeti on October 28, 2010
Reports in the media that the great wildebeest migration this year has made a wrong turn and surprised ecologists is absurd. There is nothing anomalous about the migration this year. The East African newspaper reported Monday that “A change in the spectacular wildebeest migration schedule in the great Serengeti-Mara ecosystem has caught ecologists offguard.” Using [...]
Nairobi Bombing Was Preventable
A little more than twelve years ago I sat in my room in the Norfolk Hotel and listened to our embassy in Nairobi being blown up. Now, our ambassador at the time says we knew it was going to happen. Prudence Bushnell, U.S. ambassador to Kenya in August, 1998, listed 8 reasons in a July [...]
Elect Elephants or Pumpkins
Posted by jimheck in Big Game, Economy, Politics, Wildlife Management on October 25, 2010
Elephants are on the rise, in numbers, in tusk size, in populations, and their growing battle with humans is straight on the top of the mind of Tanzanian voters going to the polls this week. Lots has been mentioned about the side issue of the proposed Serengeti highway in this weekend’s elections, but an underlying [...]
Trail of Hate Rounds the World
Posted by jimheck in African Traditions, Corruption, Culture, Uganda on October 22, 2010
The gay bashing which became gay beating two weeks ago in Uganda was widely reported worldwide. But not enough has been said about the U.S. Christian right which fomented the violence in the first place. In September I wrote that the “C Street Players” – a list of prominent leaders and politicians on the U.S. [...]
U.S. Kids Duped / Africa Disparaged
Posted by jimheck in Charity, Corruption on October 21, 2010
Here’s a perfect picture of what’s wrong with part of America: Kids, yes kids, duped by charity. No one doubts the generosity of Americans. But charity must be researched first. And that’s what so many Americans just don’t do. It would bother me less if it weren’t adults misleading kids. And I wouldn’t be quite [...]
Prices Trending Lower for 2011
Posted by jimheck in Economy, Planning Travel, Safari Lodges on October 20, 2010
The weather’s been unusually rainy, but I can see through the mist to a 2011 landscape with fewer tourists on safari. As we approach the most important annual conference for African tour companies in London next month, the news is leaking. Competition is fierce. Budget travel has been all but wiped out. Midlevel travel is [...]
Not AfroPop! Afro Rock!
At last! A music festival that treats AfroPop as a melting Good Humor Thing. Last weekend’s Malawi Music Festival did it right. The music of Africa has never been just drums and air blown through hollowed out animal horns bashed away on xylophones. And in Malawi, they just proved it! Human voice in vibrant, distinctive [...]
Lovers of the New & Different
Posted by jimheck in Wildlife Research on October 18, 2010
We lovers of Africa are focused this week on the biodiversity conference in Nagoya, Japan. It’s a big conference with big ideas that will have very, very small outcomes. As a kid who grew up in a reduced biodiverse environment (a crowded city suburb being sprayed by DDT and taken over by McDonalds), the moment [...]
They Will Divorce
Guess what? After a generation of war the peace of a richly endowed part of Africa the size of Texas all comes down to … who gets .. That’s it! .. The what? OIL! I’ve been writing for several years, now, that I believed – almost counterintuitively and certainly contrary to many observers — that [...]
Kirubi vs. Obama
This sounds cheeky, but a blog by a Kenyan yesterday has inspired me more than Peter Baker’s interview of Obama. Anybody disagree? Peter Baker’s in-depth interview of Obama published Tuesday in the New York Times really depressed me, and so what does a progressive American do when depressed? Obviously, read a Kenyan blog! The Kenyans [...]
Kenyans Embrace Jewish History
Taking a lesson from Jewish history, the Kenyans begin an important conference tomorrow outside Boston to boost their country to world prominence by 2030. The official conference name is “Tap into Wealth”, but the name being used repeatedly in the Kenyan press is the “Diaspora Conference.” Kenya’s certainty of becoming a middle-income nation by 2030 [...]
Tanzania Violence No Catastrophe
Sporadic election violence breaking out throughout Tanzanian cities is not a harbinger of any October 31 disaster. It’s not like Kenya in 2007. Last week the most pronounced violence ever to hit Arusha town occurred when proponents of two opposing political camps tried planting their flags in the city market area. Police moved in to [...]
The Story of Simon Ndege
Posted by jimheck in Wildlife Management on October 11, 2010
Simon Ndege. Simon “Bird.” That’s what we called this little known man who has spent his life with Kenyan raptors. In the earliest days of my safari guiding, hardly 30 years old, I irritated more than one client by insisting that we needed time to visit Simon Ndege. “To see a bird?!” was the universal [...]
Biopiracy in Africa
So let’s say you’re enjoying the weeds in your backyard during this warm, beautiful fall when you come across this cute little azure flower. Don’t pick it! It might belong to Pfizer! Last week’s major COWPEA conference that began in Nairobi and ended in Senegal is the latest of a number of African initiatives to [...]